Final Portfolio

     My final portfolio can be found in my LiveBinder. Here is the link:
http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=867169

The LiveBinder has six tabs: Rationale, Philosophy on Technology in Language Teaching, MD#1, MD#2, MD#3, CV.

Materials Development #3

     The following Materials Development uses online gaming, online testing, and Google Drawing to get students in a Reading Lab class interested in learning. The students are in a high-tech ESL IEP which offers each student Kindles and iPads. The students play a Word Recognition Game, take a quiz on Socrative, and draw--or post pictures--on Google Drawing. The activity is designed to keep learners engaged and active as they read. It also is designed to keep students' interests, as reading is not always a fun subject for everyone.

Lesson Plan: Reading Lab Intermediate Level
https://docs.google.com/a/nau.edu/file/d/0B4oeg2ERlMDZUUh5NjFiNmozTTg/edit?usp=sharing

Appendix A - Sample Kindle Blurbs
https://docs.google.com/a/nau.edu/file/d/0B4oeg2ERlMDZa2ptUUdZSnNMckU/edit?usp=sharing

Appendix B - Sample Word Recognition Game
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4oeg2ERlMDZTUJZeDloeW9EbnM/edit?usp=sharing

Appendix C - Sample Socrative Quiz
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4oeg2ERlMDZbjByUUtpdzRkRzQ/edit?usp=sharing

Appendix D - Panda Bears in China Kindle Read
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4oeg2ERlMDZcWVHQzV5NFRFS0U/edit?usp=sharing

Google Drawing Activity
https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1DdwaIkzCdXJmVONK7HxfUHGaeHLbTQeGr7zthvGYs7Q/edit?usp=sharing

Week 15: Panultimate

     Time is nearing end in this CALL course and in this M.A. TESL graduate degree program. The CALL course has opened my eyes to the ways of teaching ESL and other foreign languages online and through computer programs. It has been an exciting and fun course. I feel as though I have learned a lot and that it is useful. It is a great base for me; as I interview with universities abroad, they ask about my experience in teaching Computer-Assisted Language Learning. I am able to speak on the websites and programs that came from this course as well as the three software programs I use in my ESL course at PIE (Understanding and Using English Grammar, Longman English Interactive, and Connected Speech). This course was a great and positive experience, overall. I have enjoyed this course and hope to learn more about CALL in teaching as I continue in my teaching career.


MOOC: Massive Open Online Course
Have been in development over the last decade. Recent pilot MOOCs at Stanford and MIT.
Basically, it is great scholars in certain fields giving courses online. Thousands enroll and perhaps tens of thousands pass the  course on.

Controversy with MOOCs:
Reduces the teacher-student relationship
Too learner-centered
Grouping is not entirely possible
It's free, and some people have an issue with that.

Big names and prestigious universities are what attracts enrollments of tens of thousands of people.
- Stanford University Math Professor

Making a MOOC is like making a movie. The lecture must be scripted, as well as recorded.

Online Chat-type Websites
Mixxer
Busuu
Palabea
VoxSwap
MyLanguage Exchange
LiveMocha
ITalki
Lang-8
My Happy Planet
xLingo 
Duolingo 

     Hongbo and I visited Mixxer. Here we created an account and found some friends who spoke Japanese. Hongbo can read Japanese and so I can I. We found someone from Japan and e-mailed him on Mixxer. His blog greeting was "Ohayou Gozaimasu" which mean "Good Morning!" in Japanese. I also found a native English speaker who desired to learn Spanish and I e-mailed him saying that I want to learn his language, not realizing that his native language is actually English. Mixxer seems like a great website to create a blog and begin the process of making online penpals from across the world.

Week 14: Gaming for Language Learning

     Games and virtual environments can be used to foster language learnnig, especially spontaneous communication. It's not that you should use online virtual environments, but how do we use them to engage learners and foster language?

Virtual Environments
- Second Life: There's no specific goal or objective, it's an environment open and virtual. It's more engaging than other modes (e.g., SCMC, ACMC). Second Life's been used for virtual classrooms, quests, and for finding L2 conversants. Similar to other forms of CMC, it can lead to more involved and confident students.
- I think virtual environments are fun. I experienced with virtual environments a great deal from ages 11-15 years. By the time I turned 18, I had experienced almost every online virtual environment there was to experience. It is interactive, but after some time, it gets old. Perhaps there is time for something new. Google is thinking of virtual realities; people don't put on eye goggles, but can actually touch and feel through certain electronic devices. It seems like this sort of technology is near.

Game Environments
- Video games foster collaboration, as well.
- MMORPGs (e.g., World of Warcraft, EverQuest2) have been the focus of much language learning research.
- Mobile games: vocabulary teaching(ARIS, Mentira)
- Interpersonal games: SpaceTeam, Timeline

Some of these virtual and game environments are free, some are paid. From my experience, it is never worth paying for them. There exist good ones for free, and money only gets you, usually, more virtual "dollars" or something else to make your "status" higher than others.

Week 13: General Test, CALT

This week is about online testing. Nour opened class with the program wiZiQ. It is a form of synchronous online testing. The program is constantly being updated.

Nour's link: wiZiQ Nour

Later during class, we gathered ideas and compare/contrasted general test and CALT.

Washback 
When a teacher instruction changes according to the test

General Test
Hybrid answers
Washback (instruction changes according to the test)
Reliability
Raters
Purpose/type
Practicality
Timing
Use
Impact
Feedback
Paper shuffling
Interpretation of scores
Presentation
Item types
Construct underrepresentation
Construct irrelevance

CALT
Computer-assisted Language Testing
Delivery and presentation; audio and video easy. Presentation is presented through the computer.
You type the word and spell it wrong: "Did you mean ___?" Natural language processing where computers can predict/know what you're thinking. 
Computers measure your sentences and how many different words you use.
Using surveys (similar to asynchronous CMC; e.g. clickers like Socrative)
Adaptive/non
Multimedies
Objective scoring
Interactivity
Flexibility
Item banks
IRT - Item Response Theory
NLP - National Language Processing
LSA - Latent Semantic Analysis
Resources
Authenticity
Computer Raters
Indirect tEST

Assessment
Reliability is answering the question; if the same student takes the same test again, will the get the same score? Whereas validity is asking, does the test evaluate what it seeks out to?

Lecture and Exam - How to examine a test
What delivery system does the test use?
What is the purpose of the test?
What characteristics may threaten or improve reliability?
Does the test appear to have any threats to validiy?
Is there any potential washback?
Multidimensional? Authentic?

Week 12: How do I define culture?

Please take a few minutes and write out your definition of culture, especially in regards to language learning. Does culture learning mean more than just having knowledge? What else? What is the role of inter-cultural competence in the classroom? How can CALL be used to facilitate learners' cultural understanding or competencies?

Once you have finished, take a look at the answers provided by your classmates and engage them in a discussion.

 

Definition of Culture

 

Culture is the set of traditions and expectations that a group of people live under, live for, and replicate for generation after generation. Culture is music, language, skills (cooking, sewing, dancing), and "innate" abilities (e.g. understanding what someone means according to body language or specific words). Culture is not simply observing that the people of Vanuatu use bamboo stamping tubes in their traditional dance, but understanding why bamboo is used and why they dance and what for. When you become a language teacher, one of your many responsibilities is to get learners to see beyond what they observe and open their minds to the reasons and ideas behind what they see.

This week was about culture. Capital C is literature, art, music. Lower-case C is people's attitudes, beliefs, and values. Culture includes groups and groups are permeable; we belong to many groups.

No one, essentially, belongs only to one culture. Let's not use culture to separate us, but conjoin/gather us.

We must beware not to generalize an entire culture to one stereotype. Not all French people love berets and saccharine romance.

Our Team Teach Project
By: Cynthia Ahlers, Hongbo Zhu, Taichi Hardiman

PURPOSE: Chinese culture and language reading and writing class

Spring Festival, Celebration, Family, Traditions, and Expectations

Email pen pals (Asynchronous Computer-Mediated Communication - ACMC) that will include Chinese language characters and Chinese culture

 

LEVEL OF STUDENTS:

High-intermediate level Chinese as a Second Language

b. American 11-13-year-olds

 

3) END PRODUCT: The students will get more out of the culture

4) ACCOUNTABILITY:

a. Write down the answers to all of the questions in Chinese, then e-mail it to the teacher for credit

 

Ask Chinese partner:

 

SPRING FESTIVAL AND CELEBRATIONS

How do you celebrate Spring Festival?

What clothes do you wear to celebrate?

What kind of music is played to enhance the festivities?

How do you decorate your room during this time of year?

What kind of food do you eat when you celebrate?

 

FAMILY AND TRADITIONS

How many people are in your family?

Do you have aunts, uncles, and grandparents?

How do you celebrate your birthday?

Could you send an attachment photo of your family?

Do you look like your father or your mother?

What was your favorite gift you got for your birthday last year?

 

EXPECTATIONS

When did you start learning a second language?

What is your second language?

What activities do you do on your spare time?

Do you play a musical instrument?

Do you play sports?

Do you want to go to university?

What do you want to be when you grow up?

 

Materials Development #2

     The following lesson plan was designed for an Advanced level, Content-Based Instruction (CBI) ESL course, for learners in the PIE (Program in Intensive English) at Northern Arizona University. The course met three days per week for two hours each day. The course content was American protests from the early 1700s to the present. Students were developing a digital story (an electronic Power Point presentation) for their culminating assignment. Students were nearing the final weeks of this 10-week course. The Reading Quiz and Digital Story Handout, as noted in the lesson plan, can be seen in Appendices A and B, respectively, at the end of this document. Students were each equipped with iPads to make the learning process more engaging and interactive with the recent addition of CALL-focused activities and teaching equipment. There are 8 students in the two-hour course, and the students come from Saudi Arabian and Kuwaiti backgrounds.

Lesson Plan:
ttps://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4oeg2ERlMDZajRadFdnb2hpSFU/edit?usp=sharing

Iraq War Podcast:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YD-nv2xYcI

Global Warming Good Audience Practice Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY_03Y4dOPs

Google Doc for Collaborative Writing Assignment:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MBoVaJp0JpA-yJi97qYQE3LIh0UCQZVeP7s4R0Feiko/edit?usp=sharing

Week 11: Flickr, Writing & Technology

The class started out on the Monday of the week, as usual. Erin A. gave a presentation on how to use Flickr in the classroom. It opens learners' minds

How can we use technology?

- Feedback/assessment
- Collaborative writing
- Writing as a social activity
- Teaching paraphrasing/avoiding plagiarism

Ferris (2012)
- Using comment features in Word clearer and more detailed than pen on paper. You can easily recycle comments. Also, can include links to resources.
- Check My Words (a place for lexical choices), Lex Tutor (AWL Highlighter), Google

- Computer-mediated Feedback: can use screencasting for feedback. Ducate & Arnold (2012) used Jing to record 5 minute feedback from teachers, students were given the URL to watch.
- Video feedback was more effective that the in-text comments. But in some cases, the opposite is more effective...

Feedback 2.0

Storch (2012)
- Co-authoring vs. collaborative writing. We write together rather than you write one part and I the other. 

Online writing tools:
Pb Wiki
Media Wiki
Wiki Space
Educational Wiki
Wetpaint Wiki

Kessler (2012)
- The social and public nature of online writing can be motivational. Students become comfortable with the technology and writing; online writing also considers multiple literacies and can aid writing instruction. Writing is far less interactive (than what? how so?).

Turnitin/WriteCheck
- A paid writing checker to see if papers are plagiarized.
- A paid thingy for students to fix plagiarized papers.

I set up a pbwiki, but no clue how to use it. Used tah247 email

Week 10: Listenin' and Speakin'

This week in call was a warm introduction to authentic materials for learners as we come back from the nice spring break! Screencasting copies the screen and you get to either take pictures of it or video-tape what you do on the screen. It can be used to help learners understand how to navigate through new programs or websites. I use screen captures frequently in my CALL class. The students need to see where to go and where to click. But because I do not have a full wall display projector for the CALL class, and simply a television, it gets difficult to display things for the entire class to see.

UNC Narratives - http://newsouthvoices.uncc.edu/nsv/narratives
Authenic eposure to language.
Podcasts

Podcasts are quite helpful when it comes to learning language. The langauge is not always authentic, as it is read from a script and the speakers are usually speaking very slowly, but it is a great way to hear English. It is a type of exposure for learners.

Week 9: Twit, Twit, Twitter

     This week in CALL lead to a creation of my twitter account. http://www.twitter.com/chichicall
I believe that's the URL. With Twitter I can write updates as often as I like about myself, sort of a quick blog, that let's people know what I'm doing and where I'm goin'. I always felt like Twitter was a bit invasive. That anyone can know your whereabouts at any time. It's interesting... Anyway, I believe Twitter can help language learners see and understand the current topics English speakers discuss. It can open them to authentic language, cultural norms, formalities, and the everyday lifestyles of native speakers. For example, a simple browsing of twitter pages developed by American college students can allow learners to view pictures of the types of food eaten, venues gone to, relationships, and pets the students have or experience. Twitter allows learners to view the world through the eye of the native English speaker, and also learn things such as slang, colloquialisms, and informalities. Twitter doesn't, at first, seem like an educational tool, but once you look past the blog-ness of it all, it actually is a useful website and educational tool.

Week 8: Audioboo, baby

     The course began on Monday with Jena's excellent presentation on Audacity. I didn't know so many things could be used in audacity for students' language proficiency. Her presentation was fun and interactive. After Jena's presentation, we moved to Google Groups and Audioboo. Google Groups was quite interesting. I expected a clearer interface, but I'm sure the update of it is in the making. We commented on one another's MD#1. It was fun to do, I liked writing my opinion and noting the differences between MDs online. It was CMC! Google groups is both asynchronous and synchronous at the same time, I suppose. After this we went to Audioboo. It was exciting to record my voice over the computer. I felt like one of my PIE students. It was also nice to listen to my classmates' responses. Joe likes a restaurant called Bella Brava and Jena likes Campus Coffee Bean due to "fun" memories of studying for the comps there. Anyway, this week was a nice week. I read Diez-Bedmar and Perez-Paredez on CMC peer feedback which showed that learners tend to trust their own knowledge more than a native speaker when it comes to providing feedback through CMC.

Materials Development #1

     My materials development assignment comes from a previous lesson on whales. The students have already received instruction in using Google docs (which is what they use to begin brainstorming) and using Microsoft Word (which is what they use to highlight, underline, circle, and square the main idea, details, and conclusion of a summary paragraph). The lesson plan is designed for intermediate to advanced intermediate level students in an intensive English program. The students in this group are fictional, from Ball State University--majority from Kuwai, KSA, and UAE, with three students from Bhutan.

The Materials Development, Rationale, and Appendices A-C
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4oeg2ERlMDZVHNFMlYyRVhrQlk/edit?usp=sharing

The Google Document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/152Hd7ipFD668SPdf4FdLk0KRTecRoetLqjZ89Gahtgo/edit?usp=sharing

Week 7 - Synchronous TBLT

This week was full of synchronous TBLT activities. We began the week with the computer lab, as usual and signed onto a new part of blackboard. First, we had to download a program, then we were all able to get onto the blackboard synchronous CMC! It was a little interesting as us graduate students are usualyl acting silly. But what I learned from this is that the task truly has to be meaningful. I used google docs last week with my students, asking them to type active and passive sentences on the document. Of course, they were being silly and the task was a failure. I am not sure how I could make that a more meaningful task so that the students would be less likely to fool around. One thing that's challenging for me as a teacher is making tasks meaningful. What does that mean, anyway? How is meaningfulness determined? Anyway, this week is finished off with the first materials development assignment.

Week 6: Corpus in the CALL class

     This week had a few interesting reads. Dr. Reppen's work on corpus is something I am familiar with as she gave a presentation on her corpus work during a course I took last semester. She is very enthused with corpus, and thanks to Dr. Biber, I became familiar with the BYU corpus which can be used in classrooms. It takes a while to get used to, but the website is very useful. I find myself using it today when writing papers, developing assignments for my students, or when I am curious about how certain words are used in English. Recently, I used it for the presentation I on vocabulary gave during the Peaks Conference here at Northern Arizona University. I was using the BYU corpus for backup when it came to understanding how words were used in the English language.

    Also, earlier in the week, we were advised to download AntConc by Dr. Smart. Class was canceled and so we were not able to use the activity during class, but I am glad to have this program on my computer, it like the BYU corpus, I'm sure will come in handy... though I am not quite sure how to use it yet.

The AntConc Concordance download: http://www.antlab.sci.waseda.ac.jp/software.html

Grockit Activity

Activity: Answer the Questions about Cigarette Addictions
For: Adult ESL students at the beginner to intermediate levels
Helps build: Reading and writing skills, computer skills, typing

1. Tell students they will watch a video on addiction.
2. Tell students that they will watch this video and answer questions online.
3. Have all students go to https://grockit.com/r/gn0
and pause the video.
4. Students should click Create an account at the top, then begin watching the video and answering the questions.
5. Encourage students to watch the video again.
6. Go over the questions as a class.

(Note: The teacher should create a grockit account before beginning this activity in order to moderate  the activity)

Week 5 - Interesting Activities

     This week in CALL class has been exciting. We were introduced to Socrative and Grockit; both great tools for CALL ESL teaching. Thus far, I have used Socrative in my CALL class. The students enjoyed the quiz, at least, from my perspective. The Socrative interface is simple, clean and sleek. The colors are also soothing, if that makes any sense, and makes the quiz low-pressure. I tested my students on grammar--present progressive, simple and active/passive. They were quite familiar with each of those, except a few had no idea about active and passive. One of my students said to me "I'm sorry Miss, but this class doesn't matter," after I told him to get to work. It was painful to hear that, but I did not take offense. I realize the repuation of CALL in the PIE. It is lax; students feel as though the course has no significance. From my perspective, they feel this way about all classes. Anyway, I enjoyed using Socrative with my students. I also gave a shot at using Google Doc. This was not successful. My students were being very silly on the google doc, typing exploitives and crude sentences, deleting others' work, and deleting the entire prompt. I will not be use Google Documents, again... though, I do understand their desire to be silly, as even our class was silly with the google document activity in class on Monday. The anonymity allows for humor which is something we all need!

Teaching Philosophy

My teaching philosophy:

My philosophy of teaching is one of an open environment. I believe that students should be able to make mistakes and also learn from them. My teaching philosophy is based on the importance of having an integrative and communicative approach to learning. In this approach, students are able to freely and openly communicate and participate in interaction amongst their peers and classmates, as well as the instructor. I feel that an open environment allows students to be more comfortable and relaxed as they express themselves, and makes for a better learning environment—providing room for growth both linguistically and personally; as a teacher is not only a student’s instructor, but his mentor, counselor and guide.

Review of non-CALL Website

The following website was reviewed:
http://www.livemocha.com


It is designed for all language learners of English and numerous other languages of the world. I use this website to study Arabic, French and Turkish. The website provides reading, writing, spelling and grammar skills activities, as well as speaking activities and pronunciation. You can make friends from across the world and they can help you learn their native language as you help them learn yours.

Does the website offer anything extra that cannot be done in more traditional ways, e.g. with pencil and paper or chalk and talks?

Yes, it offers a voice recording section where learners can recite certain phrases or vocabulary words or respond to dialogue. Native speakers of that language then evaluate the student. It offers a chat room where you can talk with native speakers and gain fluency, you can also see them if they choose to open their webcams!

Do you intend to use the website for whole-class teaching, e.g. using a computer plus projector and wall screen/interactive whiteboard?
Yes, it could be done in this way. For example, I could showcase one of the pronunciation activities on the projector and have students practice pronunciation with their partners. Or I could have a native speaker willing to volunteer his/her help to talk about life in their country. Students could listen to a native speaker and learn intonation and tone.

Do you intend to use the website in a computer lab, i.e. where each learner works at an individual computer?

Yes, this could be possible and not too bad of an idea if I want students to practice speaking English with native speakers. They could spend time getting to know people from New Zealand, Australia or America and spend at least 15 minutes a week chatting in English with the native speaker.

Do you intend to integrate the website into your teaching?

Yes, as stated earlier, it could be used in the classroom especially for authentic needs (i.e. listening to a native speaker).

Website Evaluation Form

1. Does the site contain what you exptected, e.g. as indicated in its title or URL? No. URL seems like a coffee website
2. How easy is it to navigate the site? It is fairly easy. It seems to be user friendly, but students would need an introduction to the website before using it.
3. Does the site contain an appropriate mix of text, images, sound and video? Yes, there are plenty of images--each person on the website can create a profile and add pictures of themselves as well as pictures of their home countries. Sound is available in the activities, for example in the dialogue activity where learners listen to conversations, expressions and vocabulary in the second language. There is not much video provided.

Digital Story Activity

Activity: Tell Me About You

For: Adult ESL students at the beginner to intermediate levels
Helps build: Reading and writing skills, computer skills, typing

1. Tell students that you want to learn more about their lives, the languages they speak and their families.
2. Tell students that they will create a book about themselves. The book will be online, and they should write at least four pages.
3. Show students the teacher story example: http://storybird.com/books/tell-me-about-you-a-story-about-my-life/?token=9axaqf9mzh
4. Send students to http://www.storybird.com
5. Tell students that they must create a username and password first by registering.
6. Direct students to the CREATE tab after registering and choose a background. After choosing a background, create your story! Answer the following questions per page.

Cover page: Tell Me About You: A story about my life
Page 1: Where do you live in Flagstaff?
Page 2: How many siblings do you have?
Page 3: What is your native language? Tell us something in your native language.
Page 4: What is your dream job?
Fin page: The end.

7. After students have created their stories, instruct them to publish and e-mail the links to you and then have three students volunteer to present their stories to the class.

• My digital story activity, create a story about your life:

http://storybird.com/books/tell-me-about-you-a-story-about-my-life/?token=9axaqf9mzh

Week 4 - The Internet is a Growing Community

This week I worked with Dan Isbell on Google Drawing. We wrote about Time Management. It was fun to create a "drawing" though I thought we'd literally be taking a paint pencil and drawing. It's more like shape-developing and designing. Anyway, here is our google image below:




For this week we read Dubravac, Ch. 4 which is about theories of second language acquisition. There are property, transition, and environmental theories. Wang & Vasquez purport that Web 2.0 is changing not only the world, but the university classroom. If you don't understand the difference between Web 1.0 & 2.0, they put it like this: Web 1.0 is that time where the internet was just reading and retrieving information. You go to a website, find out some information and you're done. Now, the internet is interactive. You create and share information along with chatting with people, writing comments, adding your ideas... it's more participatory. This more interactive phase of the internet is what they would cal Web 2.0. Wang & Vasquez (2012) state that language learning environments using Web 2.0 has broadened CALL research. This goes to show that the research field for studies in CALL is very open, and the road less-traveled. Perhaps, because it is still fairly new. The internet is only about 30 years old...

Week 3 - Being an M.A. TESL Student

This week in class we spent designing digital stories and reading from Dubravac Ch. 3 and Levy (2009). I worked with Hongbo, and we designed a digital story from ebook.com. It was a bit confusing at first what with all the buttons and options, but it is quite nice. I like the idea of creating a story and publishing it for the world to see. Here is our digital story:

http://www.myebook.com/ebook_viewer.php?ebookId=183962

In this story we discuss life as a MA TESL student which was odd, because Kristen and her partner also chose the same topic.  Great minds think alike, I suppose. We gave it a colorful background design and black font which may not have been the best combination as the font is difficult to read, but nonethless, I am happy with our results.

In  viewing other students' digital stories, I enjoyed Joe's group and Karen's group. It was funny to watch birthday cards "come to life," in a sense.

Dubravac discussed the history of the web and how webpages can be used for teaching. I remember when I first designed my own website, it was a webquest sort of format. Dubravac goes on to discuss additional uses for the web, including class management and professional development. Levy was quite an interesting read as he provides technologies in use for second language learning and goes into the following skills and topics: reading, writing, listening, speaking, pronunciation, and culture. Overall, this week was quite refreshing and I look forward to the next week.

Week 2 - How Do You Incorporate Technology?

This is week in CALL was quite interesting. There was no class on Monday (kind of exciting to not have class) and one class on Wednesday. I took notes about how computers are now the center of language learning; this is referred to as CMC (Computer Mediated Education). Being a CALL teacher at the PIE, I find that I get to experience having a computer do all of the teaching. The computers aren't perfect, though. They have their setbacks. One of the programs, Longman English Interactive, involves the students to follow a story of actors as they go through specific experiences in some setting. The current setting is a news office where a story is being written on a soccer star who was gypped by a news reporter who made him say something he never actually said using a tape recorder and audio editing. The students seem to like it, though in using the program myself, I find it a bit droning.

Dr. Smart asked us to reflect on ways we can incorporate technology into the classroom. This is what I wrote:

1. Cell phone texting to an online poll
2. Youtube for current events in the world
3. Flip teaching (homework in class and classwork at home)


Dubravac, Ch.2
This week we were required to read Dubravac, Ch.2. What stood out most to me, of course, was the process of evaluation computer software receives during and after creation. Who know that this much work went into selection of programs to use in CALL courses? It makes, senses, though. As environments change, the first language of the learners and the goals of the course, it is important to use these evaluative checklists to make sure that students are getting what they need, and perhaps, want. My question is, how do you determine what to check and what not to check? Yes, something may be as simple as a yes or no, but what about a teacher or institution who checks no when the answer really is yes?

Week 1 - First Day of CALL class!

Today is my first class is CALL. I am excited about what is to come. I am teaching CALL Levels 3&4 at the PIE and so I am sure I will be able to implement what I learn into my teaching courses from time to time. Dr. Smart is a great professor and I look forward to his instruction.

My name is Taichi Hardiman. I don't know much about technology in teaching, but I will soon learn as I am the CALL instructor at PIE. My goals for the course: to understand what CALL truly is and come out of the course with materials, ideas and experiences that will help me in future employment. The applications of technology to language learning which interests me is grammar and vocabulary building.

Our wiki site:
https://sites.google.com/site/callnau/member-blogs

Our diigo:
http://groups.diigo.com/group/nau-call

Dr. Smart's Slideshare:
http://www.slideshare.net/jwsmart